Friends are mourning the death of 31 year-old Bryan Goodwin who was killed Monday in a car v. pedestrian accident that occurred while the man was attempting to cross the street. Goodwin, a legal clerk for the EPA, was confined to a wheelchair, and was a well-known advocate for making San Francisco's streets safer for the disabled. According to reports, the accident occurred as Goodwin was attempting to navigate the intersection of Market Street and Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood. This intersection is one of the city's s most notoriously dangerous and ranked highest for injuries in 2011. The San Francisco MTA asserts that one of the main causes of so many accidents is the number of drivers making illegal or dangerous right turns.
If you or a loved one has suffered a serious personal injury, it is important to consult with an experienced San Francisco injury attorney right away.
While many factors may cause of contribute to a particular incident, the fact that a large number of repeat injuries have occurred at this location raise the question of whether this intersection is "unreasonably dangerous" and whether more could have been done to prevent this tragedy. Where a city or other governmental body in charge of a roadway could have taken additional steps to improve safety but failed to do so, it may be possible to bring a negligence or wrongful death lawsuit.
A representative notes that several simple reasons make this intersection dangerous, including the higher traffic speed, the amount of traffic and the crossing distance. One of Goodwin's family members commented, "We're all shaken up. We're hurtin', but he's in a better place now …They may wanna do something about that [intersection] because I'd hate for somebody to lose a family member, go through what we're going through."
For more information or if you have been injured in a San Francisco pedestrian accidents, please contact the experienced San Francisco personal injury lawyers at Bostwick and Peterson right away.